Module

1 : Client/Brand Analysis

Grainger business model and growth strategy is impressive. Grainger supplies to
businesses, so they are a business-to-business (B2B) firm. They are marketing to
individuals or end users (business-to-consumer (B2C)), who then communicate or
route their orders through purchasing department. Most customers are on contract
to buy products at negotiated discounted price. Orders to Grainger are placed by
three different personas: small business owners, technicians in medium-size
businesses, or procurement departments of large companies. The growth strategy is
simply a partnership between Grainger (client) and Bosch Tools (brand) . Grainger
and Bosch Tools are partnering together to explore ways to increase sales of power
tools on Grainger.com by sharing data on user behavior from the Bosch Tools
website.

The website traffic trends is simple. Grainger’s duty to bring high value customers to
the site. And when they leave the website, Grainger’s ensure to continue having a
relevant conversation with the customers. As the behavior of Business-to-Business
(B2B) customers, they are switching to online, and Grainger are gaining some of
those benefits.

Here are a few examples of Grainger’s website traffic trends:

Scenario 1 : A lot of Research is involved. In B2B, you have a head of building
maintenance and all of sudden the sump pump goes out, or starts to fail. So the head
of building maintenance or lets call him the Installer has to do some research.
Research on what type of pump is the right pump for him today, based on today’s
rules and regulations. Once he knows which pump he has to buy, he takes the
information and he takes it to the organization (the location where the sump pump
has failed), which is the buyer. The buyer says for this pump, I have a contract with
this company to buy sump pumps from. Lets say, the company is Grainger. So that
person goes through Grainger’s website and makes a purchase. Once the purchase is
made, that item is shipped to the (Installer) and goes to him. So going back to the
website traffic trend, in terms of installer versus procurement, the installer decides
what needs to be purchased. But it is the procurement that actually purchases it.

Overall the website traffic trends is defined by steps of the customers search for
Grainger’s products online, do their research, make a decision, then onto purchasing
the specific product.

Now, at Granger’s online presence, its very simple and user-friendly. For social
platforms, they engage to the community through social media channels : Facebook,
Twitter, LinkedIn , Instagram, Google Plus, and YouTube. Along with the ability to
Sign Up for Email and Sign Up for Registration. This way Grainger can continue to
build engagement with their current customers, existing customers, and prospects.

Now lets discuss Grainger’s customers. Millions of businesses and institutions
worldwide reply on Grainger for pumps, motors, hand tools, janitorial supplies,
fasteners, and much more. These customer represent a broad collection of
industries :

Healthcare
Manufacturing
Government
Hospitality

Grainger works with thousands of suppliers to create and maintain an inventory of
around 1.4 M products. For instance, look into Grainger’s supplier summary located
on their website :

Supplier in U.S. # of Supplier
Women -, minority, - veteran, service Nearly 170
disabled veteran, - LGBT owned
businesses

Grainger provides more than 32,000 products to the company’s offering.

The customer’s buying pattern for a B2B is quite different. So in terms of people
coming on the website, there are many personas that Grainger is really tracking. To
keep it very simple for their business partners, let’s say there are two personas, the
buyer and the installer. Then there are about ten verticals they have and then we
have the people that are new customer versus an existing customer. Then we have
people under contract versus no contract. And they are called variables. So multiply
all of that. All of that is a couple of thousands. Different cells of audiences, at that
time, Grainger call them audiences, that they track and try to create an unique
experience for.

Overall, the customer’s purchasing patterns varies which I provided a detailed
scenario within above Scenario 1.

Grainger TripleGuard Repair and Replacement Coverage services are discussed. The
package includes an extra measure of protection for customer’s purchases. Avoid
the costly hassles of repairs or replacements for up to three years. Overall, W.W.
Grainger, Inc., with 2015 sales of $10 billion, is North America’s leading broad line
supplier of maintenance, repair, and operating products, with operations also in
Europe, Asia, and Latin America.